The invention is in the field of multiple photoflash lamp units, such as planar arrays.
The above-referenced patent applications disclose multiple flash lamp arrays comprising a plurality of flash lamps having their lead-in wires connected to a circuit board provided with switching circuitry for causing sequential flashing of the lamps, and reflectors are positioned between the lamps and the circuit board. As is particularly disclosed in the first two above-referenced Cote patent applications, the reflectors for the lamps can be made as a single reflector member or unit shaped to provide multiple individual reflectors for the lamps. The reflector member preferably is electrically conductive, such as by being made of metal or metal-coated plastic, and is electrically connected to an electrical "ground" portion of the circuitry on the circuit board. Thus, the reflector member functions as an electrical shield and increases the stray capacitance to ground of the electrical "ground" of the circuitry, reducing the possibility of accidental flashing of lamps by electrostatic voltage charge on a person or object touching the array, which accidental flashing is particularly prone to occur if the lamps are high voltage types requiring a firing voltage of 1000 or 2000 volts, for example, at low current.